RIT secures grant for NTID from Hearst Foundations

The Hearst Foundations are giving a $150,000 grant to RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf to help fund construction of Sebastian & Lenore Rosica Hall.

The gift is the latest from the Hearst Foundations to the college, Rochester Institute of Technology officials noted. More than $350,000 has been gifted to the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship for Financially Underserved Students at NTID, and $20,000 was given for a library addition.

Rosica Hall, expected to be completed this fall, will be a two-story, 23,000-square foot facility designed to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and original research among deaf and hard-of-hearing students and their hearing peers, RIT officials said.

The new building is designed to house a variety of innovative projects, including those relating to health care technology and services, development and adaptation of access and instructional technologies and innovative cross-disciplinary projects involving science, engineering, imaging and business-related fields, RIT officials said.

A space in the building will be named for the foundation.

“We are anticipating great things to come as a result of the construction of Rosica Hall,” said NTID President Gerry Buckley. “We’re grateful to The Hearst Foundations for recognizing the potential of this building and the creativity, innovation and inventions of our students, and for their many years of continuous support to RIT/NTID.”